UC Vaccine Mandate: Why Wait?

UC is planning to require coronavirus vaccinations but only when the FDA approves the vaccine. But that raises the question of the rationale for waiting. What it FDA doesn't act by fall? What if it approves one vaccine but someone has received another?

From EdSource: Private universities like Chapman University and Loyola Marymount University are among the latest to announce such mandates, joining California’s public university systems and other private colleges throughout the state. The vaccine requirements proposed by the University of California and California State University systems came with a notable caveat: They will only take effect if the Food and Drug Administration gives full approval to one of the existing vaccines, something not guaranteed to happen by the fall. The vaccine requirements at some private universities, including Chapman and the University of Southern California, also came with that caveat.

Many other universities in California and elsewhere are choosing to require that students be vaccinated for the fall even if no vaccine gets full FDA approval by then, and legal experts mostly agree that it’s within their right to do so. The vaccines are currently authorized for emergency use. With UC and CSU among the universities that are waiting for full approval, it raises the possibility that their mandates won’t actually be in effect in the fall.

“It’s not something that is set in stone. We don’t have a crystal ball, and we don’t know when that’s going to happen,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for CSU’s systemwide chancellor’s office.

Neither UC nor CSU would clarify why they are waiting for full FDA approval...

Full story at https://edsource.org/2021/many-colleges-require-vaccines-immediately-but-csu-and-uc-stick-with-plan-to-wait-on-fda/654215